They are one of the best tennis players of all time, but also one of the most inspiring sports couples. They have won 30 Grand Slam tournaments, but their greatest trophy is of course the birth of their children – daughter Jazz and son Jaden. Read on to learn about their interesting love story.
Back in 1992, Andre Agassi was preparing for the Wimbledon Ball, a traditional event that always takes place at the end of the tournament. Recalling everything in his autobiography “The Open,” the famous tennis player said that he was dying to go to the ball, knowing that the men’s and women’s winners of Wimbledon would dance there. That year, Steffi Graf, who celebrates her 56th birthday today, won the tournament, and she caught his eye during an interview she gave on French television.
“I felt like I was struck by lightning, I was amazed by her grace and natural beauty. I tried to contact her, I sent her a message in 1991 after the French Open, but she didn’t answer me.”
After defeating Goran Ivanisevic in the final, Agassi was overjoyed at the prospect of dancing with Graf, but he soon learned that the victory ball had been canceled.
Agassi was very disappointed, but that evening he still did not miss the opportunity to officially meet the famous German woman.
“I told her that I had been wanting to get in touch with her for some time and talk. She didn’t answer me. She barely smiled, it was a secretive smile and I didn’t know if it was a sign of happiness about what I had said or nervousness,” he recalled in his autobiography.
Graf was in a relationship with Michael Bartels from 1992 to 1999, while Agassi began a relationship with actress and model Brooke Shields in 1993. Most interestingly, on the eve of her wedding to the tennis player in 1997, Shields hung a photo of Graf on her refrigerator, wanting “her perfect legs” to be her motivation.
In 1999, Graf, after 17 years spent mostly at the top of the tennis rankings, decided to “retire” her rackets after winning another tournament in a series of tournaments, the French Open, which Agassi won the same year in the men’s category.
After Agassi’s two-year marriage to Shields broke up, at his request, his coach arranged with Steffi Graf’s coach to do joint doubles training sessions for the Florida tournament.
That’s when his mission to win over the tennis player began – he sent her bouquets of roses, but also practiced conversations with his coach before calling her and asking her out. But there was a small problem – she was still officially in a relationship with Bartels, and Agassi’s divorce had not been publicly confirmed.
Ultimately, the French Open and Wimbledon brought them together that year. While flying to London between tournaments, Agassi made Graf a birthday card from the airline menu, and after she received it, she called him. That phone call was, he later said, his last attempt at courtship, and he was sincere about it.
“I have to tell you before we go any further – I think you’re wonderful. I respect you so much, I admire you, and I would really like to get to know you better. That’s my goal and my only plan.”
That summer they began dating, and she soon ended her relationship with Bartels and announced her retirement from tennis. Wimbledon was her last career victory. In September, shortly after the media broke the news of their relationship, Graf moved into Agassi’s Las Vegas mansion. It was in the courtyard of that mansion that they were married on October 22, 2001, barefoot, wearing jeans, in front of the registrar, with their mothers as the only witnesses.
As he once admitted to Forbes India, the moment Graf agreed to marry him was the greatest achievement of his life. “The hardest thing for me to win over was… when Steffi Graf said yes, that was it.”